By Pamela Ankunda

SECTIONS of the media have a survey report indicating that more than 80% of Ugandans feel that independence was worth celebrating.

Kiiza Besigye should surprise us and be part of the next 50 years of nation-building. This reminds us of the wise counsel of his Lordship Justice Joseph Mulenga who remarked that freedom of expression ought not to be suppressed, except where allowing its exercise endangers community interest.

This independence was not about NRM or Museveni, neither was it a Besigye affair where his pre-planned actions were met with the understanding that Uganda is bigger and greater than all of us. 

Independence was not about Police, which only stepped in with the constitutional mandate to ensure law and order prevails. 

This independence marking 50 years is a calling to the citizens of Uganda to audit the years that have gone by, and shape the future of a new Uganda that our children deserve. 

It is the spirit with which FDC’s Muntu attended the Prayer breakfast where UPC’s Benson Obua was the MC, with President Museveni and the First Lady in attendance, the spirit with which Jimmy Akena, Obote’s son turned up at Kololo. 

Independence is neither an event, nor a mere celebration. It is an idea, a process that must be kept alive, an idea whose time especially for the younger generation has come to take the mantle.  

Independence is a progress that must be un-interrupted, an idea embedded in the dreams of our forefathers.

Total independence cannot be tied to political affiliation or religious grouping. But some Ugandans had asked that we mourn 50 years of independence. 

If the opposition had been voted through at the last elections, would they have kept citizens in the darkness and shadows of the past 50 years? 

Wouldn’t they have celebrated it as a dawn of a new era?

Some politicians are pathetically concerned about the next election and not the common man’s needs. 

But has Uganda reached a stage where false democracy should override people’s development? Does this politicians’ led scuffle define in anyway, our goals and aspirations? Do their actions favour investment?

Of-course prophets of instability are no fools. They have mastered the art; to carefully play with emotions of, especially the unemployed to incite even the faintest of hearts, for political sympathy.